In Conversation With Rajat Kapoor: The Actor Reveals An Important Message For Men About Feminism

Who is Rajat Kapoor? You would of course remember him in ‘Bheja Fry’, or ‘Phas Gaye Re Obama’. But, the truth is, not many of you would know much about this Kapoor because of the simple reason that he isn’t one for the limelight anyway. He would rather be sprawled on a bed over the weekend, or lounging around than attend parties, events and let the paparazzi take pictures of him. He’s not that man. On one such weekend though, I caught up with him during the Blenders Pride Reserve Collection for which he was the keynote speaker that evening. You would not place him in the category of men who give a damn about what brand or designer they are wearing. He’s more of a normal pant-shirt kind of guy, most likely to wear a pair of Campus shoes over a pair of Dolce Gabbana custom-made leather shoes. He’s a simple man with a very clear message about life, the things you chase after and the current scenario that’s unfolding around us.

You will be seeing him in the much-awaited Kalki-Koechlin-Naseeruddin-Shah starrer, ‘Waiting’, in which he plays the role of a doctor who has to take tough calls on the patients. The role is said to be about a few minutes long which means Rajat Kapoor appears in ‘passing’, as he says in his own words. So why did he take up the film? Because he believed in the story. Simple.

“I say ‘No’ to every script that comes my way, to be honest,” he tells me. “But if it’s an independent film that comes to me, I will go out of my way to support it because of my sensibilities.” Rajat Kapoor is not your average Bollywood actor. You won’t see him in every other film that hits theatres every week. But you will see him play a role with as much depth as required. The actor decided to take up theatre when he was hooked on to a group of pretty girls he saw at Alliance Francais back when he was all but 19 years old. “But, I did not seek it out. The vocation happened to me.” The desire to make films, he says, has been the only certainty in his life. “Everything else that has happened is an accident.”

At the Blenders Pride Reserve Collection, Rajat Kapoor addressed an audience and spoke about originality and standing for what you believe in. Earlier that evening, he spoke to me about the true meaning of style, feminism and whether or not it’s a men’s world after all.

“Style is about your belief system,” he says. “It’s who you are which reflects on everything you do—how you speak, how you dress and even how you sleep.” In an industry that is constantly harping on style, or the lack of it thereof, Rajat Kapoor thinks it’s bizarre that women put so much pressure on having to wear something new every day. “How many dresses do you have to own?” he asks.

This brings us to yet another brimming topic—feminism, or the idea of it. “It has not gone out of style, you know,” he says. “But, it’s not been fulfilled yet, either.” “In a country where they say there is equality, there is a huge differentiation, even now. We have at least another 50 years to go for us to reach anywhere close to a sense of gender parity,” the actor claims. “But, I need to remind you,” he starts. “I still get shocked when I realize that up until 1916, women were not even allowed to vote in France!” He continues on, “150 years ago, women were not even allowed to work. So, it’s a great compliment to women that they have made this change in the world.” About the role that men play in today’s definition of feminism, the actor says, “We men are playing a game of ‘Catch-Up’! We don’t know what hit us.”

The actor has a strong sense of identity—something that even the most seasoned of personalities seem to lack today. “When I look back at my life—about 10 years back—I somehow, am never able to see that guy as myself. I always see me as a third person,” he says. “It’s because I have changed.” He explains Freud; “Instead of going from this moment to that moment, we write a fiction of ourselves and a fiction of our history—it is there and yet, it is not there.”